Making God Laugh One snowy morning, I left church with a simple "to do" list. It included "Go to church, go home, and relax with the family." Nowhere on the list was "fishtail around an icy curve, become airborne, flip my van, barely miss a telephone pole, puncture the gas tank, and crash upside down in a cow pasture." But that’s just what I did. My plans flew out the shattered windshield, as I peered out at the world upside down. (Does it turn your world upside down when things don’t go as you’d planned?) Amid the odorous cow pies, I observed a herd of hefty Holsteins hot-footing it away from the accordion-shaped vehicle, which had sailed over the barbed wire fence. This was not my idea of a fun afternoon. There I was, standing on my head, trying to pry open a door that was scrunched into the side of a hill. I smelled gas leaking into the van and I heard my knees knocking. As I pulled glass shards from my head, I envisioned this gas-filled time bomb exploding and blasting me heavenward like a circus clown from a canon. All I could do was tremble and pray. Once again, life had happened while I was making other plans. While I did not fly to the moon, and my van did not explode, I was rescued by a passing motorist and whisked away in an ambulance to the Emergency Room. As is often the case, my plans changed in the blink of an eye. When I think I’ve planned for all the details and I lay out the perfect blueprint for my life, the reality bird comes along and lays an ugly, giant egg in the middle of my agenda! I’ve learned that, rather than falling into place, life will more likely fall to pieces. It’s like an ice cream cone. I might think I have it licked; but then it drips all over me. "But," I say to myself, "Life wasn't supposed to be this way!" I don’t know about you, but I planned to stay healthy/wealthy/young/beautiful/married/happy/unwrinkled, stretch mark free, and flabless forever. (You can fill in your own blanks.) Sorry, but to read "the rest of the story," you will need to:
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